A Curious Beginning, A Victoria Speedwell Mystery

 A Curious Beginning featuring Victoria Speedwell is a new series to add to my ever growing list to follow...  this is a fun light entertaining young woman who wants to defy the expected role of women in her time period.  Set in 1800 in England, she should be settling down at the age of 18 with a husband who will take care of her and their future children.

But she has a razor sharp tongue and quick wit and dreams of exploring the world catching butterflies.   This book is the first mystery she has to solve.  When a man who approaches her tells her past is not what it seems, leaves her in the custody of someone he trusts and then is murdered, she sets off to find out the secrets of her past and free herself and her benefactor from murder charges or possibly worse.

Brought up my two spinster aunts, Victoria doesn't suspect anything is amiss until both of the elderly ladies die.  Now she is on her own and planning to close up the small cottage they have recently lived in and set off chasing illusive butterflies.  First someone ransacks the cottage and tries to kidnap her. Then a gentleman intervenes and  takes her to London.  On the way he starts to explain that all is not as it seems. But after leaving her with a friend of his to watch her and promising to come back with answers he is murdered.  

She and the handsome, but of course antagonistic, rough man named Stoker, are off to solve the mystery of their benefactor's death and clear their names of suspicion for murder.  

This is a fun mystery because not only are you getting clues to the possible murderer but at the same time each of the lead characters are also slowly revealing more about their pasts which are also mysterious.

I will try and read another book from this series and see how the characters develop.

The Lunar Housewife

 Caroline Woods is an author I will look for again.  Her new book The Lunar Housewife was intriguing.  I could not put it down once I started reading it.

Written as a novel within aa novel, it is the story of a young woman starting out in New York City trying to build a career during the Cold War, 1950s.  It is also a time that women are not treated equally to men, not really taken seriously in the business world.   Working as a waitress a party she spots a handsome young man who is starting out in the magazine publishing business.  Louise is interested in becoming an author and has been working on a manuscript.  Joe the handsome magazine publisher and his friend Harry are starting up the new magazine  and are at the party.  Louise puts herself in front of Joe and they start to date.  He also asks her to write an article for the first issue of the new magazine he and his friend Harry  are publishing.  Of course she writes under a male pseudonym, because who would read an article written by  a woman. 

As the romance builds with Joe, Louise becomes more and more suspicious that there is some subversive about the relationship with Harry and the magazine.  Secrets are being kept by everyone.  As Louise and Joe become more attached and serious int heir relationship we are also reading a manuscript that Louise is writing a romance novel. The romance dime novel, mirrors her personal thoughts and problems in life. 

Easy to read and relate to if you grew up in the 50s and 60s .  Interesting to read as an historical novel. 

Hidden on the High Wire

HIdden on the High Wire tells the story of a traveling family circus. Author Kathy Kacer begins the story in November, 1939 in Germany. Irene Danner is 13 years old and the star performer on the high wire for the Lorch Family Circus. She learned her balancing act from her grandfather, who has recently died, and passed the family business to her father, the first Danner to run the Lorch family circus, in four generations.

 This book is based on the real life Lorch Family Circus and the Althoff Family Circus. Both families went back generations in the business. Adolf really agreed to protect the Lorch Family during the Holocaust. He willingly puts his family and all those in his circus at risk to help this Jewish family.  It took courage for Irene to perform in the circus and to approach Aldof Althoff to secretly protect their family from the Germans. It also took bravery for the members of the Althoff circus to keep the secret and become friends with Irene and her parents.

Lessons in Chemistry

 What delightful book.  This book was recommended by a friend and I really appreciate that she mentioned it to me.  I would have overlooked this book.  Though now I see that it is fast becoming a very popular read, if I had to reserve it now I would be 37th on the library's ebook waitlist.  

So entertaining ...I loved the quirky characters and the idea that love is a matter of chemistry ... cooking is a matter of chemistry and friendship is a matter of chemistry.. do opposites attract or similar people react to each other better?  This book covers the world of women, housewives and family interactions in 1960... like baking soda and vinegar it fizzles

This is such creatively written plot, with quite a unique writing style.  Readers meet Elizabeth Zott and Calvin, two characters with some personality quirks that some may say are on the spectrum but maybe just fun quirky personalities.  The chemistry between them is magnetic.  They are both chemistry scientists working at the same lab.

It is the 1960s and women are still expected to stay home, have children and be the perfect housewives.  Professional working women is still unheard of , so Elizabeth stands out and is unwelcome at the Hastings Laboratory.  When her greatest supporter , Calvin dies unexpectedly, and Elizabeth finds herself unwed and pregnant, also frowned upon, she is forced out of her lab.  Her daughter, named Mad Zott, and the dog, Six Thirty, benefit from Elizabeth setting up her lab  at home to continue her research.  She spends time educating both the dog and her young child.  

Slowly  as we read this story  more and more explanations are revealed about both Calvin's past and Elizabeth's thoughts.  Elizabeth takes a job as a television chef, using her knowledge of chemistry to teach the housewives of America how to make delicious meals.

This is a story of love, resolve to succeed and trust.  Elizabeth learns how to accept help and friendship from the TV  producer and the neighbor.  She learns to be a great mother and the ability to stand up for herself and succeed.  Mad is the catalyst that creates all the chemical reactions in this story.  She is a well developed character, with a clever, interesting personality.

If you have been a mother, a working woman and especially if you  grew up in the '60s and '70s, you will really relate to this plot and to the clever prose that is written into this story.